10.29.2007

Addendum, of sorts

You cannot make progress by allowing critics to define the acceptability of your position.

You cannot challenge the status quo without defending your positions.

People will attack fat acceptance. Playing nice and coddling them won't get us anywhere. When people insult us, we cannot praise their sentiment. We must challenge their insult. When people attack us, we cannot affirm their right to disagree. We affirm our right to our beliefs. If we don't challenge people, they will never think to stop insulting us. They will never think to stop attacking us.

Defining gross insults as moderation doesn't serve our convictions. It betrays them. It shifts the playing field in favor of fat hatred and gives people no reason to consider our cause. Opposition to fat liberation is the status quo. It is a status quo so overwhelming and monolithic that it will be difficult to make any gains against. We can make gains, though. We cannot make gains by playing by the rules set out by the status quo. We cannot make gains by wallowing in concern for how the status quo will feel if we disagree with it. We disagree. We challenge. We stand for something.

It is not polite to thank someone for insulting you. It is not polite to thank someone for disagreeing with you. We don't need to ask permission to disagree with someone. We don't need to ask permission not to be insulted. We demand it.

Fat acceptance means something, and that's a good thing. Not everyone will like what it means, but we owe them nothing. When they malign us as gluttons or idiots, we do not need to accept this is reasoned disagreement. When someone reasonably disagrees with us, we don't need to agree to disagree. We can just disagree and we can say so.

We will be misrepresented in speaking out for fat acceptance. By attackers and "allies" alike. We don't need to play nice when our views are misrepresented. We don't need to play nice when subjected to unfair accusations, implications, and insinuations. We don't need to. We shouldn't. We can't.

Insults should make us angry. Not just that an insult is politically incorrect, but that the insult was made at all. Misrepresentations should make us angry. We should never have to respond to someone else's unfair characterization of our position.

People will attack fat acceptance. Other people will insist you're making it up. Resist the demands for concessions. Resist the demand to play by their rules. Resist the demand to play "nice" with those who disrespect you.